Part 1: Speed Dueling, a new way to play the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG

Today we are going to be looking into our upcoming new products;Speed Duel Starter Decks: Destiny MastersandDuelists of Tomorrow.

For those of you who may not have tried out Speed Dueling before here is a summary of the rules.

The standard rules of Speed Dueling is not too different from regular Duels, the summary of the changes are as follows: –

Each player begins the game with 4000 LP (Life Points)

Each player starts the game with 4 cards in the starting hand

The Main Deck size is 20 to 30 cards

5 cards maximum size in the Extra Deck

Each player has 1 Skill Card

Skill Card’s effects do not use the chain

Extra Deck monsters can be placed in the Main Monster Zone (there are no Extra Monster Zones on the field)

Each player has 3 Main Monster Zones, 3 Spell and Trap Zones, 1 Field Zone and a Graveyard.

The first player doesn’t draw on their first turn, the hand size limit is 6. Both players can have an active Field Spell Card and a maximum of 3 copies of any card with the same name in both the Main Deck and the Extra Deck.

Each player will have one Skill Card that they place near the Dueling field at the start of the Duel.

There is no Main Phase 2, so remember to set any Spells or Traps you want to use before you enter your Battle Phase!

Speed Duel Starter Deckscome in 2 versions,Destiny MastersandDuelists of Tomorrow. Each of the Decks contain 3 character Decks so that you can try out a few different strategies right out of the box, or mix and match cards from the Decks to build something new entirely. InDestiny Masters, you will find Yami Yugi, Maximillion Pegasus and Ishizu Ishitar.Duelists of Tomorrowon the other hand contains Decks for Seto Kaiba, Mai Valentine and Joey Wheeler. In each of the Starter Decks you will find each character Deck in its own box to keep it clear when you start which cards belong to which Deck. Each character Deck also contains 3 Skill Cards. When you Duel, you will only choose one of these Skills for your Duel, but try mixing it up and trying out all of them to see what fits your Deck the most. Each Starter Deck also contains 3 Ultra Rare variant cards to power up your Decks further, so be sure to think which ones would make your Decks stronger!

After the specifications for the upcomingSpeed Duel Starter Decks:Destiny MastersandDuelists of Tomorrowwere released, we have seen lots of questions and speculations throughout the community, and we wanted to take some time to give you guys some more information about what Speed Dueling is and how it will fit into how we all enjoy playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.

Speed Duels have Skill Cards (there are 9 included in each Starter Deck), these will affect your Deck building decisions and will be very impactful on the Duel, so consider which Skill fits with your overall strategy and build your Decks in a way to get the most from your Skill. Also, you will be able to modify and build Decks for Speed Dueling. The card pool will be different from Advanced Constructed format; however, you will have freedom within that pool of cards to build your Decks however you like. For Speed Dueling it is very easy to know if a card was legal for the format. All you have to do is to look for this Speed Duel Logo on the card. If your card has this, it will be legal for play in Speed Duels. It’s also worth noting that all your Speed Duel cards (except Skill Cards) can be used in regular advanced constructed tournaments and events.

Today we will give you the first look at a Skill Card and explain a bit about how they work.

At the beginning of the game you will place your Skill Card face down near the playing area, your opponent should be able to see your character but not which Skill you have chosen to use. Almost all the card backs for each character will conceal what your Skill is at the beginning of the game so your opponent will have to guess which Skill you decided to use and keep it in mind as they are making their plays.

Once you meet the activation requirements, when there are no cards resolving on the Chain, you can announce that you are activating your Skill and then flip it over and resolve the effect. Skills do not use the Chain and cannot be responded to. So, with that explained here is an exclusive look at the brand-new Skill for Mai Valentine!

“If you have an “Amazoness” monster and a “Harpie” monster in your hand, reveal them and draw 1 card.

If you control an “Amazoness” monster and a “Harpie” monster, draw 2 cards.

Each of these Skills can only be used once per Duel.”

So, this Skill has 2 once per Duel effects that reward the player for mixing a strategy of using both “Harpie” and “Amazoness” monsters into a single Deck. Normally mixing strategies would cause your Deck to draw many miss-matched hands, but this Skill turns those hands into more cards to help you overwhelm your opponent. For Deck building, there are a couple of directions you could go in to make the most of this Skill, we would recommend trying to keep a balance of “Harpie” and “Amazoness” monsters to improve the odds that you can use your Skill on the very first turn and begin setting up to get the second effect. After you get your extra card, you want to consider some Trap options to help keep the first monster you Summon on the field so that you can follow up with another Normal Summon to draw 2 more cards. As soon as you can use these effects, you absolutely should get ahead as quickly as possible.

We hope to see this as a format for all kinds of players to pick up and try out. For the new players, Speed Dueling will be a good entry point to learn the basics of the game whilst finding the depth of it through Deck building and in game decision making. For the digital players, it should feel familiar but give them direct contact with the other side of the community to enjoy the game. Lastly for the existing players, the Skill Cards will affect player’s card evaluation and completely shake up Deck building presenting new challenges and engaging gameplay.

We will have a lot of content coming out to share with you all to promote the release of Speed Dueling over the coming months where we will share the Skills and the Decks and talk a bit about the strategies you can use to get ahead. Thank you for reading!